Meath GAA discussion thread

awaywithyou

Meathlass wrote: »

No, they're family members. Called in for a cup of tea and a chat with their granny on the way home after the game. Having seen first hand the sacrifices these players make (no nights out for months at a time, abuse in public, using annual leave to cover days off when injuried, sacrifices made at work to leave early to make training etc.) I find the 'palace boys' stereotype particularly offensive.

im not from meath but i used to teach there for a while... went to the palace regularly and by god the meath boys used to think they owned the place....

remember one night in particular.... they were in serious form in the palace... they had beaten carlow that day in the 1st round of the leinster champ....! the way they werre going on youd swear they won the all-ireland

DARK-KNIGHT

who have meath still to play? too lazy to search....

is it unimaginable for them to win remaining games and grab second spot??

Tom Joad

DARK-KNIGHT wrote: »

who have meath still to play? too lazy to search....

is it unimaginable for them to win remaining games and grab second spot??

Meath's remaining fixtures are Roscommon away (winable for Meath, given Roscommon are inconsistent and missing the Brigidslads), Sligo at home (very winnable game, as they really need to deliver a big performance at home and Sligo were terrible away to Monaghan), Antrim away (nobody gets anything easy from Casement), Fermanagh at home (depends on what's at stake and where Fermanagh are in terms of pushing for promotion).


Meath wont be relegated to Division 4 - simply couldn't happen but would take a massive turnaround to gain promotion but not beyond the realms of possibility.

iDave

Meathlass wrote: »

No, they're family members. Called in for a cup of tea and a chat with their granny on the way home after the game. Having seen first hand the sacrifices these players make (no nights out for months at a time, abuse in public, using annual leave to cover days off when injuried, sacrifices made at work to leave early to make training etc.) I find the 'palace boys' stereotype particularly offensive.

Ok so we've established they are ashamed of their performances, fair enough. So why do they let it happened repeatedly? This generation of Meath player has forced us to endure Wexford 08, Limerick 08, Fermanagh 09, Tipp 10 (i think) Louth 10, Donegal 11, Tyrone 12, Derry 12, Carlow 12, Louth 12 and now Monaghan 13 and Cavan 13. They're just the embarassments off the top of my head. Yes I'm sure they make sacrifises but so do the Dubs, Donegal, Cork etc and they're not embarassing themselves every week. The Dubs were training at 5 am in the build up to their AI. The Palace Party Boy reputation is well earned I'm afraid. Donegal had it, they've since owned up to it and taken responsibilty. As a fan I make sacrifies too, I've had to take annual leave over the years, I've parted with loads of cash (tickets, jerseys, supporters club etc) and living and working outside of Meath i take the abuse too when they lose. Jesus I dont like ranting about them but were staring at Division 4 and its obvious this goes beyond whos the manager.

Meathlass

So why do they let it happened repeatedly?

They don't seem to have the physicality that previous teams had. On Saturday night they didn't go into any of the tackles and once Joe came on it was obvious that the only plan was to kick the ball in high to him and hope for a messy goal.

I was sitting very near the pitch on the concrete seats and the Cavan manager never stopped shouting at his players, encouraging them, telling them space to run into, who to pass to etc. O'Dowd hardly moved or unfolded his arms once. I know there's different management styles but I saw 2 points that came by as a direct result of a Cavan player passing or running into a space that the manager pointed out to them.

Jesus I dont like ranting about them but were staring at Division 4 and its obvious this goes beyond whos the manager

I agree with you. I think we're going to be luckly not to be relegated. The only silver lining during the Cavan game was seeing the minor team presented with their A-I finalist medals. Even if they were badly beaten by Dublin last year. :rolleyes:

rpurfield

i think this thing of people saying lads are beyond criticism because they are amateur and making sacrifices is wrong to be honest.as posters said above if meath were losing but playing well or showing some fight you can accept it.these stories about the nights out in the palace obviously arent licked up off the ground the amount of folk saying they see them in there.these lads have to learn that getting on a county team is only the start of it not the end of a journey.id have 100 more times respect for the lad that plays for clonard or st vincents or st bridgets etc. that misses his nights out and gives up family time or work time for football when hes not going to get the chance to play up in croker or win senior championships like some of the lads on the county teams do.(no offence to players of clubs mentioned just using examples)

shaneon77

Meathlass wrote: »

The only silver lining during the Cavan game was seeing the minor team presented with their A-I finalist medals. Even if they were badly beaten by Dublin last year. :rolleyes:

I've been wondering about that myself... are none of these young guys good enough to make an impact at senior level? dardis or harnan or ward? I watched them get their accolade and fair play to them. there are quite a few still minor this year including one guy whos' name escapes me but is also eligible next year!
why are none of these guys given a run out?

DARK-KNIGHT

shaneon77 wrote: »

I've been wondering about that myself... are none of these young guys good enough to make an impact at senior level? dardis or harnan or ward? I watched them get their accolade and fair play to them. there are quite a few still minor this year including one guy whos' name escapes me but is also eligible next year!
why are none of these guys given a run out?

Have you played senior football? The move at club level from minor to senior is huge.

Very rarely would a young guy step from minor to senior without under 21 action first. 18 year old put in with 30 year olds strength difference would be huge etc.

Meath need to look at other options in the county or under 21 players. Leave the minors alone let them mature and blossom

shaneon77

DARK-KNIGHT wrote: »

Have you played senior football? The move at club level from minor to senior is huge.

Very rarely would a young guy step from minor to senior without under 21 action first. 18 year old put in with 30 year olds strength difference would be huge etc.

Meath need to look at other options in the county or under 21 players. Leave the minors alone let them mature and blossom

I accept your point completely but am enquiring as to whether any of these guys got a chance to try out on the senior panel for o'byrne/ league.
My point being that they could be no worse than the offering on display last Saturday night and may even improve things if even for the short term future.
If a guy is good enough give him a chance.
I am saying these things as a Meath fan watching my county struggling in div. 3 and a real possibility of ending up in div.4 if our performances cannot improve.
The lack of tackling and the missing "edge" are hard to swallow. I live in hope that things turn around asap. Wounded pride is all we have going for us in a way.

DARK-KNIGHT

shaneon77 wrote: »

I accept your point completely but am enquiring as to whether any of these guys got a chance to try out on the senior panel for o'byrne/ league.
My point being that they could be no worse than the offering on display last Saturday night and may even improve things if even for the short term future.
If a guy is good enough give him a chance.
I am saying these things as a Meath fan watching my county struggling in div. 3 and a real possibility of ending up in div.4 if our performances cannot improve.
The lack of tackling and the missing "edge" are hard to swallow. I live in hope that things turn around asap. Wounded pride is all we have going for us in a way.

No way will meath be relegated..

I hope not anyways... Bad for Leinster championship really bad..

iDave

DARK-KNIGHT wrote: »

No way will meath be relegated.. ..

We said that 12 months ago and now look. Of course we can relegated, history counts for nothing.

keane2097

Meathlass wrote: »

No, they're family members. Called in for a cup of tea and a chat with their granny on the way home after the game. Having seen first hand the sacrifices these players make (no nights out for months at a time, abuse in public, using annual leave to cover days off when injuried, sacrifices made at work to leave early to make training etc.) I find the 'palace boys' stereotype particularly offensive.

Well said.

meath12

are many people going to the U21 game tomorrow? hopefully the lads can do it but it is a very good kildare team so atleast if they dont win but play well and theres a few stand out players, then they could be brought in to play for the seniors

Hammer Archer

I'm heading alright. It can't get any better than five Ratoath lads in the starting lineup :pac:
It'll be tough alright. Hopefully the game under their belt will do them good. Need to put away the chances this time, unlike in the Louth game.

Hammer Archer

Disappointing result in the end. We were well in control in the first half. The forwards were doing well, we were winning midfield and the backs were doing trojan work. But then we let Kildare run straight through the defence and let in a stupid goal when we were 4 up. That seemed to shake the lads and Kildare went up a few gears.

We went in at half time level and got a great goal in the second half to pull it back level after Kildare went ahead. Then Kildare got two ridiculous strokes of luck to get a second goal and the lads just gave up after they missed a great goal chance not long after. Kildare definitely weren't 9 points better than us.

blowitupref

Any of Meath U21s to return to the senior panel now?

Hammer Archer

Only Conor Sheridan was on the panel during the O'Byrne Cup. I'd hope several get given a chance during the rest of the league. They can't be any worse than the current seniors.

Lemlin

Hammer Archer wrote: »

Delighted I couldn't make it last night. I'm not one bit surprised at the result. Even with the staggering amount of injuries I think we're a mid-table division 3 team now. Four of our last five league games have been embarrassing defeats. And the worrying thing is that two of those were in Navan against local rivals. When things weren't all that rosy a few years back, at least we were pretty solid in Navan.
Promotion is still a slim possibility given that any team can beat any other in this division, but we simply cannot lose again. And I honestly can't see us going to Roscommon next week and getting a result.

Just the part I've bolded - just wondering about it. How many players were Meath actually missing? I'm aware of Seamus Kenny and Shane O'Rourke being long-term absentees but, from looking at the starting line-up, I see Paddy O'Rourke, Menton, Keoghan, Lenihan, Harrington, Gillespie, Meade, Gilsensen, Byrne, Farrell and Reilly. Mickey Newman is fairly new to the panel but I've seen him play for Kilmainham and he's been knocking on the door a while I would of thought. So that's 12 of the starting panel that I would see as being very much part of the starting 15 come championship. Then Cian Ward, Joe Sheridan and Kevin Reilly all came on. Are the Brays also missing? Other than the two of them and the two named above, I didn't think Meath were missing too many. Maybe I'm wrong and there are a few others.

Cavan were missing five or six also. Arguably our most impressive player over the past couple of years, Eugene Keating, our stop scorer this year, Martin Dunne, and our full back, Rory Dunne, were all missing. Also missing were John McCutcheon through suspension, Niall Smith, Ronan Flanigan and Padraig O'Reilly through injury.

I just think that the statement above makes it sound like Cavan beat some severely depleted Meath team. I thought myself that Meath had a strong team out but it's clear there are problems. I've been watching Meath for years and, at the start of the second half, when Newman got the goal, I was very worried because I've seen Meath come back time and time again. It just didn't happen though.

The players seemed to lack the fight that the Meath teams of old had. I do think a few of the bunch aren't up to the standard required though. I still find it hard to believe that Bryan Farrell gets his place. I've never been particularly impressed with him. He has the odd high scoring game but he tends to have a few dreadful games before knocking out the decent one.

Hammer Archer

Alan Forde, Damien Carroll, Shane McAnarney, and Mickey Burke are four more who would be there or thereabouts. As well as them, two players that have been decent this season so far, Seán Tobin and Mark Collins, are also out. Kevin Reilly has been out since last year's championship as far as I remember and last weekend was his first appearance since then. Stephen Bray is still injured. David Bray has had a torrid time with injuries since 2010. He is back from injury and made a couple of appearances in the O'Byrne Cup but was dropped from the panel after. Difficult to know if he'll ever get back up to the standard we saw in 2010 after two cruciate injuries.

Along with the two you mentioned, that's 9 players out and two (Ward and Reilly) just returning from injury. Tom Walsh and Donnacha Tobin, two regulars last season have emigrated. Now not all these would be guaranteed starters, but they would add a large amount of depth to the squad, something which has been seriously lacking this year. That is no excuse for the losses we've had, and I'm not taking anything away from Cavan, but they have had an effect without a doubt.

I think Meath's renowned fight is definitely a thing of the past. We've had three bad beatings in the last year and not once did we look like giving a damn about getting back into any of those three games.

Hibbeler

Well what with all the negativity surrounding Meath football in the last couple of weeks, I for one am sick of hearing and reading about it. Whatever about past performances I hope that the team can travel to Roscommon with a point to prove and we might be able to squeeze a good performance out of them. I think the team picked for this match is the strongest so far this league campaign.

Remember we had a poor league campaign last year (got relegated ffs) and still made the leinster final beating the flavour of the month team at the time. I think come championship time if we could have a similar result a poor league will be forgotten.

On a more postive note, the pats of Navan team won the leinster colleges championship might this bode well for the minor team this year? Plus my old school Ardee won the leinster 'c' championship and they have at least one meath minor (my brother was on that team )

Obrieski

Hibbeler, you're dead right. Time to get behind the lads again, I still believe we can get through these rough times and have a good year.

In relation to your other point, Meath schools have always been strong. Pats, ashbourne, ratoath, Dunboyne, Dunshaughlin, oldcastle, kells and more have regularly been competing at Leinster and national level for the last 7 to 8 years, and more in the case of the pats.

I think the underage 'problems' that Meath have according to some posters are a bit of a myth. I was on Meath teams at underage that regularly won competitions in Leinster beating all around them, we won the Leinster minor too. And meath always seem to win the under 14, 15 and 16 blitzes. Maybe the problem is emphasising the winning and not the coaching at these levels but there's no better feeling as a young lad than winning these competitions for your county.

The problem for me is keeping lads in good training and conditioning between 18 and 21. Beer and women and college come part of life at these ages and I've seen so many potential greats slip off the radar at this stage. Imagine, when you finish minor, you may have been on a Meath team since 13 years of age but all of a sudden you may have 2 years before you're on the 21s team.

Last years minor team for example. Reached an all ireland final, any of those not on the Meath 21s should train once a week together in the gym or on the pitch because at the moment they're with their clubs and developing bad habits, not training with such intensity etc etc and I've seen this happen. It happened to me to an extent, players reach a comfort zone with the club that doesn't happen at county training or matches.

These 2 years need to be attacked by the county board, try and keep lads together. Even if its once a week with a coach, or their individual gym programme. Lads need to develop and it might not even guarantee you a spot on the 21s team but at least potential stars won't get distracted as much by other things if they're still part of a Meath setup.

I also think it should happen now immediately for all the lads playing with this years 21 team who are eligible again next year. They should train together once a week to keep their sharpness and intensity up at that level.

Lemlin

Obrieski wrote: »

Hibbeler, you're dead right. Time to get behind the lads again, I still believe we can get through these rough times and have a good year.

In relation to your other point, Meath schools have always been strong. Pats, ashbourne, ratoath, Dunboyne, Dunshaughlin, oldcastle, kells and more have regularly been competing at Leinster and national level for the last 7 to 8 years, and more in the case of the pats.

I think the underage 'problems' that Meath have according to some posters are a bit of a myth. I was on Meath teams at underage that regularly won competitions in Leinster beating all around them, we won the Leinster minor too. And meath always seem to win the under 14, 15 and 16 blitzes. Maybe the problem is emphasising the winning and not the coaching at these levels but there's no better feeling as a young lad than winning these competitions for your county.

The problem for me is keeping lads in good training and conditioning between 18 and 21. Beer and women and college come part of life at these ages and I've seen so many potential greats slip off the radar at this stage. Imagine, when you finish minor, you may have been on a Meath team since 13 years of age but all of a sudden you may have 2 years before you're on the 21s team.

Last years minor team for example. Reached an all ireland final, any of those not on the Meath 21s should train once a week together in the gym or on the pitch because at the moment they're with their clubs and developing bad habits, not training with such intensity etc etc and I've seen this happen. It happened to me to an extent, players reach a comfort zone with the club that doesn't happen at county training or matches.

These 2 years need to be attacked by the county board, try and keep lads together. Even if its once a week with a coach, or their individual gym programme. Lads need to develop and it might not even guarantee you a spot on the 21s team but at least potential stars won't get distracted as much by other things if they're still part of a Meath setup.

I also think it should happen now immediately for all the lads playing with this years 21 team who are eligible again next year. They should train together once a week to keep their sharpness and intensity up at that level.

I agree with what you say above re the gap from minor to U21 and lack of county training. In Cavan, part of our underage success was built on the fact that Terry Hyland, now senior coach, used a panel of 45 to 50 players for training for the U21s.

That meant he was always involving as many players as he could in the U21 training each year.

One of the lads from my own club is in his last year at U21 and this is the first year he's kicked a ball for more than ten minutes in a match with Cavan U21s yet he's been training with them since he finished minor.

Hammer Archer

Stephen Bray starts instead of Joe Sheridan.

Lemlin

Good win for Meath today. Yas are still very much in with a shout of promotion should you win your remaining three games.

I think ye have Sligo, Antrim and Fermanagh left so it is possible.

Hammer Archer

Perfect results for us today as well with the other two games today ending in draws.
It certainly is doable but some of the same old failings were evident today. Midfield was cleaned out yet again. Also Roscommon ran straight through our defence far too many times unchallenged. The two goals were invaluable as I don't think we would have been nearly as comfortable without them. Kevin Reilly's goal was hilarious. He wellied the ball from around his own 45. It flew over the two forwards and defenders at the 20m line and bounced over the keeper into the net.

Every single game from now on is a must win. Win the rest of the games and I'm sure we'll be promoted given how close this division is.

Congrats (yet again) to the hurlers who are all but through to the division 2B final after winning their third game in a row against Mayo today. They've

iDave

They've delayed announcing the starting XV until tomorrow morning. Anyone know the reason for it?

Hammer Archer

Starting lineup named:
Meath (NFL v Sligo) - Paddy O'Rourke; Donal Keogan, Brian Menton, Caolan Young; Ciaran Lenihan, Eoghan Harrington, Davy Dalton; Brian Meade, Kevin Reilly; David Larkin, Cian Ward, Peader Byrne; Eamonn Wallace, Stephen Bray, Michael Newman.

Still unsure about Stephen Bray starting. He definitely wasn't fit last weekend which is unsurprising given the amount of time he's been out. Midfield once again doesn't inspire confidence. First start for Eamonn Wallace at corner forward. He was the first Ratoath player since 1986 to be on a senior Meath team last week.

Hammer Archer

Wicklow beating Monaghan 1-2 to 0-1 after less than 20 minutes.
Gwan Wickla.

Edit: Should've kept my mouth shut. 1-3 apiece.

Lemlin

Hammer Archer wrote: »

Wicklow beating Monaghan 1-2 to 0-1 after less than 20 minutes.
Gwan Wickla.

Edit: Should've kept my mouth shut. 1-3 apiece.

Would be great if Wicklow could even get a point out of that match but can't see it.

Hammer Archer

Lemlin wrote: »

Would be great if Wicklow could even get a point out of that match but can't see it.

Can't see it either. Praying for a Fermanagh win tonight because I can't see either yourselves or Monaghan losing either of your last two games. Promotion is definitely out of our hands.